And o'er the boar's-head, garnifhed brave,
And cygnet from St Mary's wave;

O'er ptarmigan and venison,

The priest had spoke his benifon.
Then rofe the riot and the din,
Above, beneath, without, within !
For, from the lofty balcony,

Rung trumpet, fhalm, and pfaltery;
Their clanging bowls old warriors quaffed,
Loudly they spoke, and loudly laughed;
Whispered young knights, in tone more mild,
To ladies fair, and ladies fmiled.

The hooded hawks, high perched on beam,
The clamour joined with whiftling fcream,
And flapped their wings, and fhook their bells,
In concert with the ftaghounds' yells.
Round go the flasks of ruddy wine,

From Bourdeaux, Orleans, or the Rhine;
Their tasks the bufy fewers ply,

And all is mirth and revelry.

p. 166-67.

The following picture is fufficiently antique in its conception, but the execution is evidently modern.

Ten of them were sheathed in steel,
With belted fword, and fpur on heel:
They quitted not their harness bright,
Neither by day, nor yet by night:
They lay down to rest
With corflet laced,

Pillowed on buckler cold and hard;

They carved at the meal

With gloves of fteel

And they drank the red wine through the helmet barred. ' The whole fcene of the duel or judicial combat, is conducted according the ftrict ordinances of chivalry, and delineated with all the minutenefs of an ancient romancer. The modern reader will probably find it rather tedious; all but the concluding stanzas, which are in a loftier measure.

'Tis done, 'tis done that fatal blow

Has ftretch'd him on the bloody plain;
He ftrives to rife- Brave Mufgrave, no!
Thence never fhalt thou rife again!
He chokes in blood-fome friendly hand
Undo the vifor's barred band,
Unfix the gorget's iron clafp,
And give him room for life to gasp 1 -

In vain, in vain-hafte, holy friar,
Hafte, ere the finner fhall expire!
Of all his guilt let him be shriven,
And smooth his path from earth to heaven.
In hafte the holy friar fped,
His naked foot was dyed with red,
As through the lifts he ran ;
Unmindful of the fhouts on high,
That hailed the conqueror's victory,
He raised the dying man ;

Loofe waved his filver beard and hair,
As o'er him he kneeled down in prayer.
And ftill the crucifix on high,
He holds before his darkening eye,
And ftill he bends an anxious ear,
His faltering penitence to hear;

Still props him from the bloody fod,
Still, even when foul and body part,
Pours ghoftly comfort on his heart,
And bids him trust in God!

Unheard he prays; 'tis o'er, 'tis o'er !

Richard of Mufgrave breathes no more.' p. 145.-47.

We have already made fo many extracts from this poem, that we can now only afford to prefent our readers with one fpecimen of the fongs which Mr Scott has introduced in the mouths of the minstrels, in the concluding canto. It is his object, in thefe pieces, to exemplify the different styles of ballad narrative which prevailed in this ifland at different periods, or in different conditions of fociety. The first is conftructed upon the rude and fimple model of the old Border ditties, and produces its effect by the direct and concife narrative of a tragical occurrence. The fecond, fung by Fitztraver, the bard of the accomplished Surrey, has more of the richness and polish of the Italian poetry, and is very beautifully written in a stanza refembling that of Spenfer. The third is intended to reprefent that wild ftyle of compofition which prevailed among the bards of the northern continent, fomewhat foftened and adorned by the minstrel's refidence in the fouth. We prefer it, upon the whole, to either of the two former, and fhall give it entire to our readers, who will probably be ftruck with the poetical effect of the dramatic form into which it is thrown, and of the indirect description by which every thing is most expreffively told, without one word of distinct narrative.

O liften, liften, ladies gay!

No haughty feat of arms I tell;

Soft

Soft is the note, and fad the lay,
That mourns the lovely Rofabelle.
"Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew!
And, gentle ladye, deign to ftay!
Reft thee in Caftle Ravenfheuch,

Nor tempt the ftormy frirth to-day.
"The blackening wave is edged with white;
To inch and rock the fea-mews fly;
The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite,
Whofe fcreams for bode that wreck is nigh.
"Last night the gifted feer did view

A wet throud rolled round ladye gay ;
Then flay thee, fair, in Ravenfheuch:
Why cross the gloomy frirth to day?
"'Tis not because Lord Lindefay's heir
To-night at Roflin leads the ball,
But that my ladye-mother there
Sits lonely in her caftle-hall.
" 'Tis not becaufe the ring they ride,
And Lindefay at the ring rides well,
But that my fire the wine will chide,

If 'tis not filled by Rosabelle. ”—
O'er Roflin all that dreary night

VOL. VI.

A wondrous blaze was feen to gleam;
'Twas broader than the watch-fire light,
And brighter than the bright moon-beam.
It glared on Rollin's caftled rock,

It reddened all the copfe-wood glen ;
'Twas feen from Dryden's groves of oak,

And feen from caverned Hawthornden.
Seemed all on fire that chapel proud,
Where Rollin's chiefs uncoffined lie;
Each Baron, for a fable fhroud,
Sheathed in his iron panoply.
Seemed all on fire within, around,
Both vaulted crypt and altar's pale;
Shone every pillar foliage-bound,

And glimmered all the dead-mens' mail.
Blazed battlement and pinnet high,
Blazed every rofe-carved buttrefs fair-
So ftill they blaze when fate is nigh
The lordly line of high St Clair.
There are twenty of Roflin's barons bold
Lie buried within that proud chapelle ;
Each one the holy vault doth hold-

But the fea holds lovely Rofabelle i
And each St Clair was buried there,

NO. 11.

B

* Ife.

With

With candle, with book, and with knell;

But the Kelpy rung, and the Mermaid fung

The dirge of lovely Rofabelle.' p. 181-184.

From the various extracts we have now given, our readers will be enabled to form a tolerably correct judgement of this poem; and if they are pleafed with thefe portions of it which. have now been exhibited, we may venture to affure them that they will not be disappointed by the perufal of the whole. The whole night-journey of Deloraine--the opening of the wizard's tombthe march of the English battle-and the parley before the walls of the caftle, are all executed with the fame fpirit and poetical energy, which we think is confpicuous in the specimens we have already extracted: and a great variety of short paffages occurs in every part of the poem, which are still more striking and meritorious, though it is impoffible to detach them, without injury, in the form of a quotation. It is but fair to apprife the reader, on the other hand, that he will meet with very heavy paffages, and with a variety of details which are not likely to intereft any one but a Borderer or an antiquary. We like very well to hear of the Gallant Chief of Otterburno,' or 'the Dark Knight of Liddefdale,' and feel the elevating power of great names, when we read of the tribes that mustered to the war, beneath the creft of old Dunbar, and Hepburn's mingled banners.' But we really cannot fo far fympathife with the local partialities of the author, as to feel any glow of patriotifm or ancient virtue in hearing of the Todrig or Johnston clans, or of Elliots, Armprongs, and Tinlinns; ftill lefs can we relifh the introduction of Black John of Athelftane, Whitflade the Hawk, Arthur-fire-the-braes, Red Roland Forfler, or any other of those worthies who

Sought the beeves that made their broth,

In Scotland and in England both,’

into a poem which has any pretenfions to ferioufnefs or dignity. The ancient metrical romance might have admitted thefe homely perionalities; but the prefent age will not endure them; and Mr Scott muft either facrifice his Border prejudices, or offend all his readers in the other parts of the empire.

There are many paffages, as we have already infinuated, which have the general character of heavinefs, fuch as the minstrel's account of his preceptor, and Deloraine's lamentation over the dead body of Mufgrave: but the goblin page is, in our opinion, the capital deformity of the poem. We have already said that the whole machinery is ufelefs; but the magic ftudies of the lady, and the rifled tomb of Michael Scott, give occafion to fo much admirable poetry, that we can on no account confent to part with

them.

them. The The page, on the other hand, is a perpetual burden to the poet, and to the reader: it is an undignified and improbable fiction, which excites neither terror, admiration nor aftonifhment, but needlefsly debafes the ftrain of the whole work, and excites at once our incredulity and contempt. He is not a 'trickfy fpirit,' like Ariel, with whom the imagination is irrefiftibly enamoured, nor a tiny monarch, like Oberon, difpofing of the deftinies of mortals: he rather appears to us to be an awkward fort of a mongrel between Puck and Caliban, of a fervile and brutal nature, and limited in his powers to the indulgence of petty malignity and the infliction of defpicable injuries. Befides this objection to his character, his existence has no fupport from any general or established fuperftition. Fairies and devils, ghofts, angels and witches, are creatures with whom we are all familiar, and who excite in all claffes of mankind emotions with which we can eafily be made to fympathife. But the ftory of Gilpin Horner was never believed out of the village where he is faid to have made his appearance, and has no claims upon the credulity of those who were not originally of his acquaintance. There is nothing at all interefting or elegant in the fcenes of which he is the hero; and in reading these paffages, we really could not help fufpecting that they did not ftand in the romance when the aged minstrel recited it to the royal Charles and his mighty earls, but were inferted afterwards to fuit the taste of the cottagers among whom he begged his bread on the Border. We entreat Mr Scott to inquire into the grounds of this fufpicion, and to take advantage of any decent pretext he can lay hold of for purging the Lay' of this ungraceful intruder. We would alfo move for a Quo Warranto against the spirits of the river and the mountain; for though they are come of a very high lineage, we do not know what lawful bufinefs they could have at Brankfome caftle in the year 1550.

Of the diction of this poem we have but little to fay. From the extracts we have already given, our readers will perceive that the verfification is in the highest degree irregular and capricious. -The nature of the poem entitled Mr Scott to fome licenfe in this refpect, and he often employs it with a very pleafing effect; but he has frequently exceeded its juft meafure, and prefented us with fuch combinations of metre, as muft put the teeth of his readers, we think, into fome jeopardy. He has, when he pleafes, a very melodious and fonorous ilyle of verfification, but often compofes with inexcufeable negligence and rudenefs. There is a great number of lines in which the verfe can only be made out by running the words together in a very unufual manner; and fonie appear to us to have no pretenfion to the name of verfes at all.

B 2

What